Hugo Boss Goes Global With China-Centered Campaign

Video Campaign, Live Webcast, Social Media To Showcase Shanghai Runway Show To World Audience Taiwanese model and actress Lin Chi-ling in a still from Hugo Boss’s new video campaign to promote its upcoming Shanghai fashion show. (Hugo Boss) German label Hugo Boss recently launched an online video campaign with a cosmopolitan flair to promote its upcoming May 30 Shanghai fashion show. The move demonstrates not only the brand’s fixed focus on the Chinese market, but also its view of China as an optimal location for debuting its designs on an international stage. Rather than being intended solely for Chinese consumers, Hugo Boss’s runway show at the Shanghai Power Station of Art will unveil the winter 2013 collection to a world audience. Contrasted with Dior Homme’s recent China reprisal of a collection that was originally shown in Paris, the company’s choice of Shanghai to debut its new designs signals its view of China as not only a valuable market, but also a global taste-making center. Hugo Boss’s Shanghai fashion show promotional website features two mini-webisodes entitled Shanghai Affairs, which contain elements intended to appeal to both Chinese and international audiences. The videos feature one Taiwanese and one European character (model and actress Lin Chi-ling and Spanish model Jon Kortajarena), both of whom show off the label’s collection with Shanghai’s city lights as the glamorous backdrop, in scenes targeting both local and foreign consumers. The two episodes are intended to build global interest in the live webcast of the show, which will be available online to anyone in the world who wishes to watch. The label also incorporates social media and e-commerce strategies by marketing on several online platforms and advertising that two pieces of the collection will be available for purchase online immediately after the show’s conclusion. After debuting its winter 2012 collection in Beijing last year in its first China show, Hugo Boss has been clear about its China-centered marketing strategies. Gerd von Podewils, senior vice president of the label, said of the choice of location, “Following our highly successful fashion show in Beijing in 2012, we are now focusing on Shanghai – and by doing so emphasizing the significance of the Asian market for Hugo Boss.” After seeing only a four percent rise in China sales in 2012, the label has employed several strategies to catch the attention of the market, which have yielded a “gradual improvement” in sales, according to company CEO Claus-Dietrich Lahrs. Among them were the 2012 Beijing show — a high-tech, 3D event – expanded social marketing, and actor Chow Yun-Fat as a brand ambassador. In February 2013, the company embraced China’s burgeoning e-commerce market by opening its official Chinese online store. To see Hugo Boss’s China-centered strategy in action, watch episode one of the campaign below:

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Hugo Boss Goes Global With China-Centered Campaign